Collective experience: TIFF’s experimental section remains vigorous 2021, with some films firmly rooted in rigorous visuality, and others more intensely personal
Cloak and dagger: Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s engrossing World War II tale embeds an exposé of Japan’s bio-weapons program in the drama of a couple’s dueling loyalties
Daily grind: Affonso Uchôa’s debut feature searches for meaning in the seemingly mundane conversations and chores of three working-class Brazilian women
Disappearing act: with its deceptively spare mise-en-scene and tamped-down performances, Andreas Fontana’s Dirty War thriller is a superlatively muted debut
Gotta be the shoes: while the first Space Jam was a slick product designed to sell merchandise, the sequel starring LeBron James is somehow even less compelling
Drift away: Jessica Beshir’s documentary is a hypnotic montage of the people, nature, and Sufi parables that surround the khat trade in Harar, Ethiopia
